Recent Post

Fast Food Nation: A Book Review

Fast
Food Nation is written by Eric Schlosser. It is the book which gives, as
the US
subtitle suggests, the dark side of the American meal. Although some other
writers have already explored this topic but Schlosser account is very thorough
and up to date.

Conflict
theory of macrosociological perspective says that societies experience
perpetual struggle due to the unequal distribution of the things people value.
Values such as industry, thrift and obedience are imposed upon the masses
through mass media, culture and other transmitters of values and ideas. This
book has been written with conflict theory of macrosociological perspective.

Culture:

How
do these cultural orientation influences the way we perceive, evaluate, and
present ourselves in relation to others? From the 1950’s America’s youth
as well as its culture took an entirely new turn. The prosperity, which came in
the country after 1950, gave all the reasons to the youth to create new ways
for spending that money; this had ignited their passion for entertainment and
created a culture in which fast food played an important role (Schlosser, 2005).

Media

Media and especially the film media
have great impact on society and it is actually the media, which shapes the
culture of the society. It has been said that American culture was shaped in
the present form by media.

Electronic media are the third biggest exports of United States
economy. This export has created a flood of American pop culture all over the
world. Due to advertisements, American people are compelled to buy more.
Advertising has played an important and pivotal role in the economy of a
country in the information age. The desired outcome of advertising depends upon
the intended audience. Audiences and objectives in relation to each audience
are based on crash data and market research (Elkin, 2002).

In the present information age, traditional marketers expand
the use of digital media for product promotion. Many of such marketing agencies
are seeking specific information about which online advertising techniques have
worked best. This has affected the spiritual values of the society and
converted it into a materialistic society.
As long as vices dominate our lives, there can be no peace, no
happiness. Thus I must say that media has played pivotal role in the popularity
of fast foods in America.

The question is, does life imitate
art? Some times it seems that way. No one can ever prove that a specific
fictional depiction was the primary cause of a specific act of violence. There
are always other possibilities. With control, comes artificiality and doubts
have been expressed about whether what is found in the lab will also occur in the
real world.

Inequality of Gender

Many
researchers have observed that the economic growth
during the initial stages of development creates a gap between men and women.
While the initial stage of development creates a gap between genders, other
consequences of these changes lead to the reversal of these trends. The
exclusion of women from wage activities eventually results in tight labor
markets and rising demands of female workers, while the growing dependence of
household on money generates greater pressure for women to become employed.
Policy makers eventually become more likely to intervene in promoting greater
access of women to education and training. So women seek to acquire greater
bargaining power within their families (Levy & Murnane, 1992). Rapid developments are more likely to be accompanied by
greater gender rigidity in countries with a tradition of patriarchal
institutional arrangements.

The rising demand of women in labor market has compelled women to
go out for work; this not only provides the labor to the fast food chains but
also make families of working women to rely more on fast foods, which
ultimately increased the popularity of fast foods.

Conclusion

Schlosser has presented very
thorough and up to date information in this book. Although many of the cases
are already known to the people but still it’s a good effort to put them all in
a single book. The main question is does this book affect the eating habits of America? I,
personally, seriously doubt it. Fast food eating habits is now in the roots of
our culture and most of the new sociological concepts of current American
Nation is based on this fast food culture. But I must say that Schlosser effort
is worthwhile.